I was certain every possible joke about baseball attendance in Florida had been exhausted over the past 20 years. Then I saw the tweet by Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post that included the photo above from the Miami Marlins Winter Warm Up event Saturday and realized we havenít even scratched the surface.
The Marlins have used up all of the goodwill a new taxpayer-funded stadium gave them just a year ago. They've made many missteps, but the massive giveaway with the Blue Jays turned even hardcore Fish fans against them. And it has left them with a line for tickets that's four people long. That's not including this guy, who wore a Blue Jays cap to the event in protest.
Later on, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald published another photo from the fan fest that is somehow more depressing than Capozzi's: A completely deserted concession stand.

The Marlins might have more players at camp (74) than fans who showed up to buy single-game tickets on the first day they were available. Seriously!
This is all the doing of owner Jeffrey Loria who, according to these fans, needs to be traded. Now that's a line people would stand in if it would make him sell the team.

An awful owner combined with an awful fan base equates to an attendance disaster. Despite the success of the Heat, I don't think any Florida teams should have professional sports: it's a state filled with transients and transplants.

An awful owner combined with an awful fan base equates to an attendance disaster. Despite the success of the Heat, I don't think any Florida teams should have professional sports: it's a state filled with transients and transplants.

This. Most of the sports fans in Florida are from the northeast. A good team like the Rays have trouble drawing at times. It's basically another home game for the Yankees when they play there.

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Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning:

Matt once made a very nice play in Seattle where he spun away from a pass rusher and hit Bowe off his back foot for a first down.

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"Just make sure you mention my name in the top brackets. And make sure they mention your name as the top - insert vulgar language that Chiefsplanet doesn't like even though it's a harmless lyric -....."

This. Most of the sports fans in Florida are from the northeast. A good team like the Rays have trouble drawing at times. It's basically another home game for the Yankees when they play there.

That's the crux. They have some really good franchises, or have had franchises with a fair amount of success: Rays, Marlins, Heat, Magic, Panthers, and Bucs have all been very competitive franchises over the last 10-15 years, but they have no public support. Most of them should be relocated to replace contracted franchises.

An awful owner combined with an awful fan base equates to an attendance disaster. Despite the success of the Heat, I don't think any Florida teams should have professional sports: it's a state filled with transients and transplants.

2 World Series titles in the short existence. Bad owner or not, that is impressive.

He was only owner for one of those titles. The first one the team was owned by Wayne Huizenga, who owned the Dolphins. He sold the team to John Henry (who now owns the Red Sox)... who sold the team to Loria, allowing Loria to dump the Expos. Even then, the foundation of that 2nd team had already been built when Loria bought it.

Granted maybe I'm just biased against Loria. He wrecked baseball in Montreal, and is now doing it in Florida. I can't think of too many owners that have done this to two pro franchises.